Courses

ART 1010. Art History. 3 Units.

The semester survey course in Art History will introduce the history of art focusing on movements that range from the Prehistoric to Postmodern times. The course will introduce elements of art criticism, historical and cultural knowledge of the art movements, visual analysis, and connections to modern lived experiences. The course will also employ research methods that art historians use to determine the cultural value of a work produced at a given time. Students will be creating projects that demonstrate their understanding of art criticism and history, will be analyzing academic articles and journals, and will be assessed on their comprehension of visual analysis. The student experience will conclude with a cumulative final exam.

This workshop integrates lectures and demonstrations, classroom projects, quilt samples, and experiential learning. It provides an overview of the history and processes of quilting, techniques for selecting fabrics and designs, and various traditional and contemporary methods used by quilters. Mathematical applications include: scaling, graphing, techniques for precise measurement and overlays.

ART 3100. Sources of Creativity: Theory and Process. 3-4 Unit.

This class is designed to examine a variety of current psychological theories on creativity, as students apply this knowledge to music, art, writing, science, psychotherapy, and theatre. The course also focuses on creative blocks, burnout and breakdowns. The class includes discussion, reading and hands-on experience.

ART 3170. Postmodern Art Practices. 3-4 Unit.

This is a studio course for those who would like to discover their own style, materials, and methods for making authentic artworks. Use of traditional and non-traditional contemporary art practices and media are presented to encourage students to find their own visual language and approach. The nature and methods of various contemporary art movements and genres are examined. Students learn about contemporary art theory by completing projects that utilize various theories including mapping, constructing a personal lexicon, conceptual art, and installation.

Parallel Worlds examines art practices across the hemispheres from 1300 to 1950. The course will unpack the influence and stylistic variances within European (and later international) art during this period. Class sessions will be divided into two parts. One half of the class will be devoted to observing the art of Europe and its stylistic progressions starting with Giotto in Italy to survey art from the Renaissance, to Mannerism, to the Baroque, etc. The second half of the session will explore the colonial counterpart of these movements as seen in the artistic traditions of the Americas (San Miguel de Huejotzingo, the quilts of Gee's Bend, Frida Kahlo, etc.). We will see how these styles mixed with the indigenous population and the African peoples, as seen in Mexico, Peru, and the United States. By the end of the course, we will examine how the Americas now export their artistic traditions eastward and across the globe. The course will utilize visual samples, theoretical writings, class discussion, and museum trips in order to enrich understanding of the art of these periods with visual sensation.

From the 1960s on, the feminist art movement has inspired pioneering new directions in visual art, as evidenced by recent significant survey exhibitions such as the WACK! show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2007. What is feminist art and how can we learn from its accomplishments and innovations? Who were some of its most interesting and provocative practitioners? How can we incorporate feminist concerns into our art work, in ways that are personally and politically relevant?and aesthetically and conceptually exciting? These are some of the questions we?ll explore as we study a diversity of feminist artists and projects. Students will execute their own art projects in response to some of the core themes and strategies of feminist art, while being encouraged to update their approaches based on current issues and life experiences. We will begin by viewing some pre-cursors of feminist art, then study the critical accomplishments of artists of the 1960s and 70s, and finally move on to discuss contemporary artists. Students need no prior experience in art, and may create class projects based on their particular skill level, including painting, installation, craft-based forms, photography, video, text, performance, and internet-based projects. This class welcomes all genders, and students may address the projects themes as pertains to their experiences and interests.

This course examines the concept of beauty by studying the biases implicit in a variety of cultures' definitions of the term. It is designed for students working in the visual arts, creative writing, songwriting, and dance. Following Crispin Sartwell's book Six Names for Beauty students will create a matrix that compares different cultures' understanding of what is beautiful and then create their own definition of beauty. Students will further explore cultural differences by creating work utilizing the values of the cultures we study. In Japan beauty is seen in the imperfections found in nature, in classical Greece beauty was rooted in a rigorous demand for perfection. How you define what is beautiful, defines who you are as an artist/creator.

There are two vital elements in developing an artistic voice; one is form and the other is content. This course focuses on identifying content that is meaningful to each student and helps students to translate that content into visual and textual signs.

ART 3360. Jung, Mandalas, & the Active Imagination. 3-4 Unit.

ART 3370. Self As Subject. 3-4 Unit.

Students begin by identifying their many selves, how who they are is shaped by issues such as cultural identity, gender, and class. Using art students map the complex intersection of these selves. The art is designed to celebrate these identities and use irony and humor to turn around images/ideas, which are prejudicial. Turnarounds can be a powerful form of social criticism. Participants will also draw upon memories/their personal stories to make art. Students will be exposed to the work of artists such as Betye Saar, Linda Nishio and Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Group discussion about the ideas and dialog related to the work that is produced are important parts of the course. We will work from art critic, Lucy Lippard's book Mixed Blessings to generate dialog and so that students can become familiar with artists who are working with identity.

ART 3380. Picasso: Life and Work. 3-4 Unit.

This course studies Picasso as an original artist and Picasso, the person, in relation to his constructivism. Contributions to Cubism are emphasized. In addition, the work of other artists are compared and contrasted such as Rodin, Matisse, Rembrandt, and Michelangelo.

ART 3390. Art, Recycling, and Consumption. 3-4 Unit.

In this course students collect the by-products of their day-to-day consumption and then make art work with those materials, beginning with mapping their own usage; collecting materials and measuring waste. Students examine issues of toxicity and the ethical questions of utilizing more traditional media in the face of our current ecological crisis. Students make use of the data and/or the actual materials collected in the making of their art work. As this is a studio class, students work during class making constructions in the form of mapping, assemblage, collage and sculpture. This course takes students beyond the early foundational skills of art making into the more conceptual challenges of art making. It is by examining why artists use the materials they use, the impact of those choices that students can come to a conceptual premise for their work. Students learn to integrate form and subject.

ART 3400. Pictures From Light: Understanding Photography. 3-4 Unit.

This course is an introduction to the aesthetics of the photographic medium. Students view a wide range of photographic images from the genres of documentary, art photography, and portrait photography. Readings by artists, historians, theorists, and critics are assigned and discussed as they relate to the topics covered each week. Emphasis is placed on students developing an eye for photographic composition and an understanding of the aesthetic, ethical, and theoretical underpinnings of individual photographers' work. Special emphasis is placed on introducing students to significant women photographers and photographers of color.

ART 3440. Post-Studio Aesthetic. 3-4 Unit.

ART 3450. African American Assemblage Art. 3-4 Unit.

This course explores the black assemblage movement, its origins, ethos and aesthetic, its practitioners and their work, in the context of the recent socio-political history of the black community of Los Angeles. The approach is sociological, i.e. art understood as an expression of societal values, consciousness, and structures. Through critical appraisals of oral historical, primary and secondary sources, viewing imagery, discussion, various projects, and visits to artists' studios and locations in the black community, students will explore this world emotionally and analytically, within and outside the classroom.

ART 3460. Climate Change As Subject. 3-4 Unit.

Climate Change as Subject will examine the ways in which that art can be used to document and process the effects of climate change upon the world. Students will be encouraged to develop projects that focus on the environment and the ways in which that what they create works of art can address climate change. Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, which will serve as the course text and aid on the quest to understand the political, environmental and cultural impacts of climate change across the globe. The most up-to-date research on climate change, as well as guest speakers, art slide lectures, and films will be used in order to examine how modern life is rapidly changing the planet and hopefully lead students to new modes of green living, consciousness, and art production.

ART 3500. Prior Learning: Art. 0 Units.

ART 3510. Independent Study: Art. 1-5 Unit.

ART 3530. Internship. 1-5 Unit.

ART 3900AC. The Art of the Protest. 1 Unit.

ART 3900AD. Active Listening and Social Art Practice. 1 Unit.

Developing our capacity to actively listen is critical to the art of social practice and helps us understand the politics of our various social positions. In this one-day workshop, we will actively consider some of the various ways artists and other social practitioners can use listening as strategies for effective community engagement. We will experiment with story telling, drawing, theater, and site-specific exercises on Antioch's campus to challenge our inherited dominant systems of speaking, telling and informing. Through this experiential learning process, we will create applied strategies for our own practices, and collectively form a project proposal.

Taking their cues from the conceptual and feminist art of the 1960s and 70s, postmodern artists Barbara Kruger and Sherrie Levine and pioneering conceptual artist Adrian Piper used radical strategies to undermine conventions of beauty and originality in visual art. Emulating the aesthetic of propaganda posters, Kruger's work combined images borrowed from magazine advertisements with provocative statements to confront sexism and the ideologies of consumer culture. Sherry Levine reproduced works by masters of modernist photography and sculpture to challenge ideas about originality and genius in the art marketplace. Artist and philosopher Adrian Piper used her own mixed-race heritage as a springboard to confront racist assumptions and racial stereotypes in everyday social interactions. We will explore the careers of these three artists, as well as their influence upon a subsequent generation of contemporary artists. The workshop includes a visit to LACMA to view the exhibition Ends and Exits: Contemporary Art from the Collections of LACMA and The Broad Art Foundation.

Los Angeles has been a major art hub since John Cage first studied with Arnold Schoenberg in the 1930s. The arts in LA have long stood in the shadow of other cultural industries and thus have been able to flourish without intense scrutiny like art in New York. Because of this open space, Los Angeles has positioned itself at an important crossroads of openness and experimentalism that has pushed it to the front of the American art scene. This workshop will focus on the work made in Los Angeles since John Cage and will examine his influence upon artist's practices since. Cage's music incorporated elements from the visual arts and can be seen as some of the first inter-media work that aimed to blur the line between art and life. We will examine the work of L.A. artists like Chris Burden, Paul McCarthy and Catherine Opie amongst others in order to better understand the artistic production of this major art center from the 30s to the present. The instructor will act as tour guide, highlighting important places, people, and movements that have left an indelible mark on this city and the world. No grade equivalents allowed.

This workshop explores the work of photographers who create beautiful images of suffering. Examples include photographs by Luc Delahaye, Mary Ellen Mark, Susan Meiselas, Sebastio Salgado, and others who subejects include the war in Iraq, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, conflicts in Central America, and famine in Northern Africa. Students discuss what constitutes beauty in a photograph, and whether artists are justified in making visually pleasing images out of human pain. In addition, the class addresses the question of whether photographic images of harsh realities can serve as catalysts for change. No grade equivalant allowed.

ART 4010. History of Performance Art. 3-4 Unit.

Students explore the shifting phenomenon of performance art by examining its historical origins, as a reaction to and deconstruction of the economic and aesthetic constraints of such artistic disciplines as visual art and theater. The course explores different formal movements in performance, including body-based work, identity-based work, time-based work and storytelling. The focus is on performance as it has developed and mutated in Los Angeles, with guest class visits from innovative and leading local artists. Through reading, viewing taped performances, discussion and practical exploration, students familiarize themselves with the radical possibilities of this discipline through historical, societal, political, and economic perspectives.

ART 4900A. The City in Art. 1 Unit.

ART X2000. Art / Fine Arts Domain. 1-9 Unit.

General Education Transfer Credit Equivalency: Do not make any sections from this course.

ART X2003. Art & Child Studies / Fine Arts Dom. 1-9 Unit.

General Education Transfer Credit Equivalency: Do not make any sections from this course.

ART X2005. Art & UCE / Fine Arts Domain. 1-9 Unit.

General Education Transfer Credit Equivalency: Do not make any sections from this course.

ART X4000. Art / Fine Arts Domain. 1-9 Unit.

General Education Transfer Credit Equivalency: Do not make any sections from this course.

ART X4003. Art & Child Studies / Fine Arts Dom. 1-9 Unit.

General Education Transfer Credit Equivalency: Do not make any sections from this course.

ART X4005. Art & UCE / Fine Arts Domain. 1-9 Unit.

General Education Transfer Credit Equivalency: Do not make any sections from this course.